‘It’s the right thing to do’ says Kingston man of efforts to reward a homeless man’s generosity

So when Kingston High School 2004 graduate Tay Fisher, saw a story about Hassell “Junior” Barber’s generosity earlier this month, he decided to pay it forward.

In early May, for the second time in less than a year, Barber turned over found money to city police in hopes of finding its owner.

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“There is a homeless guy who lives in Kingston ... He found a wallet with close to $500 in it and reported it to police ... The police asked him why he did it and he replied, ‘because it is the right thing to do,’” Fisher wrote on his Facebook page. He’d said he heard the story while traveling in Europe and decided to come home and pay Barber, a 67-year-old homeless man, a visit.

“I am happy to be away from Kingston traveling and exploring the world, but I never forget where I came from,” Fisher wrote. The hometown hero who started his professional basketball career with the Harlem Globetrotters and went on to found Tay Fisher’s Fundamental Basketball Camp for Kingston and Troy high school students then headed home and found Barber.

“After I introduced myself and told him who I was and what I do, he was familiar with me. I told him I wanted to give him camp shirts because I appreciate what he did,” Fisher wrote. “He declined at first because he said he didn’t have room in his bag that he carries around, but I was already prepared ... I pulled out a Tay Fisher bag and said, ‘now you have a bag, my man.’”

Fisher left his gift with Barber and told him “I am doing this because it is the right thing to do,” he wrote.

“I am not sharing this story because I want people to say ‘I am a good person’ or to get publicity. I am doing this because I want others to think like me and help others who are in need,” Fisher wrote. “Opening the door, carrying bags or giving clothes to someone who needs it is simple, but very effective. Do it BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO.”

Fisher’s comments netted 208 “shares” and 739 “likes” on his Facebook page, along with an additional 265 “likes” on the Kingston Police Department Facebook page.

About the Author

Diane Pineiro-Zucker has been a reporter at the Daily Freeman since April 2013.
Pineiro-Zucker worked as a reporter in the Freeman’s Rhinebeck bureau in the early 1980s, left to become executive editor at Taconic Newspapers in Dutchess County, and returned to the Freeman in 2010 as a copy editor. Reach the author at dpzucker@freemanonline.com
or follow Diane on Twitter: @DianeAtFreeman.